The USA men's team huddles up under the request from Jonathan Horton right before competing in their last event the high bar during the team men's gymnastic artistic team final at the North Greenwich Arena for the Summer Olympics in London, England on Monday, July 30, 2012.

London — After finishing first in the qualification rounds Saturday, the Team USA men had high hopes of winning their first gold medal in the team competition since 1984.

Instead they failed to do what the last two U.S. men’s team did — at least win a medal. The Americans finished fifth.

John Orozco, who trains at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, sat down on the pommel horse in his first routine and fell on his behind his next time up, on vault.

London — When the men’s gymnastics team competition ended Monday, Great Britain was in second place behind China and Ukraine was in third.

Then judges ruled on a protest regarding a pommel horse routine by Japanese superstar Kohei Uchimura. They upgraded his score, which moved Japan up to second, dropped the Brits to third and knocked Ukraine out of the medals.

London — So I’m on a train to the gymnastics venue and a cheery, rotund man wearing a Denmark hat asks me who will start at quarterback for the Broncos this season. He knows where I’m from, because he sees the credential around my neck.

“I am interested in American football,” he says, identifying himself as Jesper G. Jensen. “Actually, if you look at Denmark, we have the most supporters for American football (per capita) in the world. Many Danes go every year to Wembley in October to see the match. I’ve been there every year.”

I tell him Peyton Manning will start for the Broncos and ask him who his favorite player is.

LONDON — Taylor Phinney’s chances for a medal in Wednesday’s Olympic cycling time trial might improve if Switzerland’s defending champion, Fabian Cancellara, doesn’t improve from the crash that hurt his right hand during Saturday’s road race.

Doctors would determine Monday if he was fit after a ride. From the sounds of it, he’s getting better.

The 31-year-old, who fractured a collarbone during the Tour of Flanders in April, was quoted in The Independent: “I am an optimist and now I hope the training (Monday) will show if the position on the time-trial bike suits me and if I can go forward.

I’ve never covered shooting before. I was really looking forward to seeing Matt Emmons, the Colorado Springs gold medalist whose tragic losses of two other golds on last shots made him the most sympathetic character in the last two Olympics.

But when I reached his shooting range, I was turned away from a sporting event for my first time in six Olympics. Turns out, shooting is wildly popular in the Olympics. The press tribune area was overlowing and they had no room for me.

All the fans’ seats were taken, too. By who? I’m sitting in the media room surrounded by Indians. Their defending gold medalist in air rifle, Abhinav Bindra, bombed in 16th. But his teammate, Gagan Narang, won a bronze.

The grounds here at the converted Royal Artillery Barracks are crawling with Indian fans carrying Indian flags over their saris. I see Seikhs with “INDIA SHOOTING” T-shirts. One of the hidden beauties of the Olympics is the specific cultures you dive into at certain sports. Badminton and Indonesia, field hockey and Pakiston and, apparently, shooting and India.

The venue is remarkable. There are three indoor ranges, each decorated with large red or blue circles made to look like giant bullet holes. From a distance, it looks like a neighborhood was attacked by alien snipers.

They will return to barracks after the Olympics. But for some reason, if I’m a soldier, I really don’t want to sleep in a building with giant bullet holes in it.

Empty seats are seen in the stands ahead of the women's Group G soccer match between North Korea and Colombia.

LONDON — The weather is fine. The traffic problems have cleared up. The security issue is long forgotten. By far, the biggest problem the London Olympics have faced so far has been swaths of empty seats in alleged “sold-out” venues.

The problem is LOCOG, to help pay for these Games, sold nearly 9 percent of its tickets to corporations and sponsors who just can’t seem to bother going to the events. Many bought them for clients or customers without knowing when they would go. It’s similar to pro sports that do the same. You go to an Avalanche game and see entire sections of expensive seats untouched. Then the next day you read in the boxscore that it was sold out.

Thousands of fans were denied tickets here yet I’ve seen tons of empty seats for swimming prelims. I’m seeing pictures of three or four fans sitting in a section for gymnastics.

To combat this, LOCOG is having soldiers leave their security posts to fill some seats. It’s a nice idea but these soldiers look about as interested in their particularly sports as they do knitting.

LOCOG can’t give empty seats to fans or resell them shortly before the opening bell, similar to many theater policies, because they don’t know when then corporate suits will show up.

Here’s an idea: Fifteen minutes before an event, let fans in for free and if someone comes to reclaim their seat they can leave. We’ve done that at Rocky games.

London — To get home from Olympic Park at night, I take the high-speed “Javelin” train to St. Pancras-Kings Cross, where I change to the Underground for a short ride to my hotel. I was delighted the first night to find there is a Starbucks at the St. Pancras station, and that it’s open 24 hours.

Whether I’m leaving Olympic Park early (10 p.m.) or late (could be well past midnight), when I start packing up my things I’m looking forward to that sweet little treat to finish my day — de-caf, of course.

Meyer will be covering his 12th Olympic Games in Rio this summer. He has covered five World Alpine Ski Championships and more than 100 World Cup ski events. He is a member of the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame.

Jason Blevins covers tourism, mountain business, skiing and outdoor adventure sports for both the business and sports sections at The Denver Post, which he joined in 1997. He skis, pedals, paddles and occasionally boogies in the hills.

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About All Things Olympics

The All Things Olympics blog from The Denver Post covers the athletes, events and stories of the Olympic Games and Olympic sports, including the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia. Its writers — John Meyer, Jason Blevins and Mark Kiszla — will feature profiles, articles, analysis and personal reflection.